Analysis

Analysis March 14, 2022 04:49 MIN January-February 2022 What Can We Learn About Iran-Houthi Ties from the New UN Panel Report? By Thomas Juneau Relations between Iran and the Houthis were marginal 10 years ago; today, the Houthis are one of the most important partners in the network of armed non-state actors that Iran supports throughout the region. Studying the evolution of the Iran-Houthi partnership is difficult: there is limited publicly available information on the political dynamics between leaders on both sides or on the nature of Iran’s military support. One of the few sources of reliable information over the years has been the reports of the Panel of Experts (PoE) on Yemen, submitted yearly to the United Nations Security Council. The latest report, released in late January, provides additional insight on Iran’s policies in Yemen. The PoE report covers other topics, such as… Continue reading Analysis February 16, 2022 24:04 MIN Northern Yemeni Tribes during the Eras of Ali Abdullah Saleh and the Houthi Movement: A Comparative Study By Adel Dashela The support of northern Yemeni tribes has historically been critical for the ability of the central government in Sana’a to maintain power. During the period of the Zaidi Imamate – the northern religious polity that ended in 1962 – the rulers, or imams, used their social status as descendants of the Prophet Mohammed’s family to win over the two most important tribal confederations in the north, the Hashid and Bakil, between whom there is a long history of rivalry. “The imams and rulers depended to a large extent on the northern tribes, and the most famous warring tribes in Yemen were the Hashid and Bakil. They are known as the two wings,” the late nationalist politician Ahmad Mohammed Noaman wrote… Continue reading Analysis February 7, 2022 87:37 MIN A History of Yemeni Political Parties: From Armed Struggle to Armed Repression By Tawfeek Al-Ganad Early political party activity emerged in North Yemen in the 1930s and 1940s in opposition to the imamate, but it was limited in size and influence. In the South, small, weak parties composed of southern elites populated the political sphere, though they lacked a popular base. By the 1950s, with Arab nationalism and Islamic ideological movements on the rise regionally, Yemeni parties adopted the ideals of regional Baathists and Arab nationalists as well as the Arab Left and the Muslim Brotherhood. Despite being prohibited in both North and South Yemen in the 1960s and 1970s, party activity flourished underground. Conflicts within and among political movements were frequent and at times bloody throughout Yemen, and the pre-unification disputes between the socialists… Continue reading Analysis January 31, 2022 27:12 MIN The Gas Crisis in Taiz: War, Mismanagement and Exploitation By Wissam Mohammed The ongoing conflict in Yemen has resulted in protracted crises in public service provision in multiple sectors across the country. In Taiz governorate in central Yemen, the war has driven critical gas shortages, particularly in the besieged capital, Taiz city. Taiz city has been under either total or partial blockade by the armed Houthi movement since August 2015, a situation described by the UN Human Rights Council’s Group of Eminent International and Regional Experts on Yemen as a form of collective punishment and a violation of international humanitarian law. The city had an estimated population of 372,845 in 2019, though the conflict and movement of IDPs have made the true number hard to ascertain. The blockade has caused shortages of… Continue reading Analysis January 27, 2022 33:23 MIN The Impact of War on Civil Society Organizations in Marib By Mehdi Balghaith, and Sadam al-Adwar Nestled in central Yemen and bordering several other major governorates, including the capital Sana’a, Marib has stood out as the main engine of the country’s economy in recent decades. However, despite its oil and gas wealth, the governorate remained impoverished due to a policy of marginalization adopted by the government of late president Ali Abdullah Saleh, depriving it of basic infrastructure, development and economic projects. Among the repercussions of this policy was a lack of civil society organizations (CSOs) to support residents in the absence of government services. Prior to 2011, local CSOs were few in number. Some were only semi-active, leaving just a few organizations operating, unsustainably, in the fields of development, charity and cooperation. Following the outbreak of… Continue reading Analysis January 25, 2022 20:30 MIN Women’s Non-Traditional Roles in Tribal Societies By Rim Mugahed, Bilqees Al-Lahbi, and Magnus Fitz As the war in Yemen enters its seventh year, the situation appears bleak and opportunities for peace grow fewer by the day. Amid the country’s fragmentation, the emergence of de-facto authorities and the almost complete absence of the state, local communities must rely on themselves to maintain peace. In this context, tribes have emerged as a decisive factor in maintaining social cohesion and security. But their ability to perform this role has been weakened by the political and sectarian polarization that existed even before the war erupted. The tribe is one of the most significant social models in managing community cohesion and security in Yemen, particularly taking into consideration the erosion of other local mechanisms of negotiation and mediation. The… Continue reading Analysis January 24, 2022 15:58 MIN Social Fragmentation and Restoration in Taiz By Abdullah Alhaj Already suffering from myriad crises propelled by the war – including economic degeneration, fuel shortages, insecurity and the collapse of healthcare and livelihoods – Yemenis have also had to contend with intra-communal, and even intra-familial, fractures. Tribal, sectarian and regional affiliations are routinely used by both the armed Houthi movement and the internationally recognized government to gain territorial advantage, further stressing local social relations. This paper will examine the phenomena of increased social disintegration in one particular governorate, which has become a microcosm of the war in Yemen: Taiz. It will also present proposals on how to avoid further fragmentation through serious attempts to heal rifts, including initiatives from within communities that could be adopted by local organizations. This paper… Continue reading Analysis January 17, 2022 30:42 MIN Saudi Arabia’s Role in Southern Yemen By Hussam Radman Close engagement with Yemen has been one of the fundamentals of Saudi foreign policy since modern Saudi Arabia was established in 1932. Saudi policy toward Yemen has been shaped by four basic factors: Yemen’s foreign and domestic policy; regional and international developments; the nature of the Saudi regime and its decision-making mechanisms; and the political and security consequences of having a long, shared border. Saudi Arabia has experienced three major political events to its south: the 1962 revolution in North Yemen, the rise of the socialist regime in South Yemen in 1967, and the unification of North and South Yemen in 1990. Riyadh employed a range of soft power tools including a network of local alliances, dispensing economic aid, and… Continue reading Analysis January 13, 2022 18:58 MIN Women in Hadramawt Organize to Alleviate Travel Restrictions, Providing a Model for Civic Engagement By Mohammed al-Katheri Since the start of the Yemeni war in 2015, the capabilities of the internationally recognized government have weakened dramatically. It no longer maintains the traditional functions and attributes of a state, most notably sovereignty over its territory or control of the integrity of its borders. The government has been further hampered by the patchwork distribution of its military and security forces on the ground and a reliance on foreign partners. In the southern governorate of Hadramawt, state security weaknesses allowed the fall of the coastal city of Mukalla to Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in April 2015. Left vulnerable by the redeployment of security forces to other fronts, the city remained occupied until AQAP was expelled by troops from… Continue reading Analysis January 12, 2022 44:32 MIN The Impact of the Yemen War on the Priorities and Needs of Youth By Yazeed Al-Jeddawy Much has changed for Yemen’s youth since they played such a decisive role in the overthrow of the country’s authoritarian president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, back in 2012. In a country where around 75 percent of the 30 million-strong population are under the age of 30, many of those youth had hoped that Saleh’s overthrow would mean they were only steps away from realizing a peaceful transition to a new Yemen. Yet today, after years of war, the economic, political and social consequences of the conflict have forced a shift in the needs and priorities of the country’s youth. Indeed, the majority of them now live in a ‘new Yemen’ different from the one they had strived for. Now, they exist… Continue reading Analysis December 24, 2021 07:11 MIN In Endless Pursuit of Refuge By Manal Ghanem The last major stronghold of the internationally recognized government in northern Yemen, Marib governorate lies 173 kilometers to the northeast of the country’s Houthi-controlled capital, Sana’a. Renewed fighting began in Marib in July 2020 but escalated significantly in September and October 2021. The upsurge in the scale and intensity of the fighting is a result of a resurgent campaign by the armed Houthi movement, made possible after the group consolidated control over southeastern Marib, neighboring Bayda’ governorate, and the three districts of Shabwah governorate that border Marib – Bayhan, Ain and Usaylaan. Control of these areas enabled Houthi forces to secure a supply route from Sana’a to Marib, and thousands of Houthi fighters have since descended onto the active frontlines… Continue reading Analysis December 24, 2021 05:40 MIN An Unneighborly Rapport: How Yemeni-Saudi Relations Went Astray By Abdulghani Al-Iryani The Taif Treaty between North Yemen and Saudi Arabia ended the 1934 war between the two states and led to the Saudi annexation of the disputed provinces of Najran, Jizan and Asir. The treaty stipulated Saudi control over the disputed provinces for a period of 40 years. It also granted the right of the citizens of each country to live and work in the other country. That was followed by 30 years of peace that allowed the development of strong economic ties and facilitated the migration of hundreds of thousands of Yemeni workers to the kingdom. The relations soured after the September 1962 Republican Revolution against Imam Mohammed al-Badr, who fled to Saudi Arabia. The revolutionaries invited Gamal Abdel Nasser’s… Continue reading